The present invention generally relates to a telephone communication system, and in particular, to an in-home (or a small office) telephone communication system utilizing the capabilities of existing telephone equipment and existing phone wiring with the addition of a control computer.
Increasingly, many homes may have one or more telephone wires and a modern PC with advanced features. With increasing performance needs and expectations on home telephone systems, more and more consumers are demanding that the home telephone systems have more intelligence and processing capabilities at an affordable price. Thus, applicants have realized there is a large market potential to use modem PC's processing power to provide home telephone system with advanced home telephony features, including:
(1) caller ID announcement based on caller ID record, PA1 (2) voice activated auto-dial, PA1 (3) PC resident message center access from any PCIP equipped phone, PA1 (4) routing of incoming calls to specific phones in the home, PA1 (5) in-house intercom with no additional wiring of the home, PA1 (6) screening of incoming messages from any PCIP equipped phone, PA1 (7) home convenience package including list maker and scheduler, PA1 (8) speech recognition by using the PCIP system, PA1 (9) multiple line access, etc. PA1 (2) that is flexible to form a specific telephone system for a household, PA1 (3) that is adaptable to existing telecommunication technology, PA1 (4) that is adaptable to consumer's existing telephone equipment and house wiring, PA1 (5) that is simple to install, and PA1 (6) that does not interfere with regular operation of existing home telephone system. PA1 a control processor, coupled to one of the communication lines, for generating commands to control the communication devices; PA1 a switching circuit, coupled between one of said communication devices and the communication lines, for selectively connecting said one communication device to one of the communication lines; and PA1 an executing processor, coupled to said one communication device and said switching circuit, for executing said commands to control said switching circuit, so that said one communication device can be connected to said one communication line. PA1 a control processor, coupled to one of the communication lines, for generating commands to control the communication devices based on operational status of the communication lines; PA1 a switching circuit, coupled between one of said communication devices and the communication lines, for selectively connecting said one communication device to one of the communication lines; and PA1 a line selecting control circuit, coupled to said one communication device and said one communication line, for generating a request to select said one communication line so that said one communication device can be connected to said selected one communication line; PA1 wherein, in response to said request, said control processor allows and denies an access to said selected one communication line based on the operational status of said selected one communication line.
This application specifically relates to the feature of personal computer assisted multiple line access. The other features are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/766,121 filed Dec. 16, 1996 (now abandoned); U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/767,045, filed Dec. 16, 1996 (now pending); U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/767,046, filed Dec. 16, 1996 (now abandoned); U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/766,120, filed Mar. 24, 1998 (now abandoned); U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/767,044, filed Dec. 16, 1996 (now abandoned); U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/767,043, filed Dec. 16, 1996 (now abandoned); U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/766,122 filed Dec. 16, 1996 (now abandoned); and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/766,123, filed Dec. 16, 1996 (now abandoned) which are incorporated into this application by reference.
Applicants have also realized that the feasibility to achieve such market potential greatly relies on an effective design of an integrated computer-telephone system:
(1) that has a low cost,
In a typical house, when a telephone company installs multiple lines, they are available at all phone jacks throughout the house. However, the existing telephone sets in the house may not have multiple-line access capability, and the user may not be willing to replace the existing telephone sets. Furthermore, with the multiple telephone lines in the house, it is desirable to dedicate one or more telephone lines to certain types of calls, such as the calls in business nature or data mode calls, at certain periods of time. Because the multiple lines are available at all phone jacks throughout the house, a dedicated call can be interrupted by the telephone sets at other extensions distributed in different rooms.
Therefore, there is a need to provide an integrated computer-telephone system that enables users to get access to multiple telephone lines without requiring to replace existing home telephone sets.
There is another need to provide an integrated computer-telephone system that is capable of managing access to the multiple telephone lines.
There is yet another need to provide an integrated computer-telephone system with the feature of preventing other telephone sets at other extensions from disrupting a telephone line when a call is in progress on the telephone line.
The present invention provides the method and apparatus to meet these needs.